Thailand eyes to become regional hub of agricultural machine parts

BANGKOK, August 25 (TNA) - Siam Kubota Corporation Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Thailand's Siam Cement Public Company Limited. and Japan's Kubota Corporation, plans to turn Thailand to become a distribution hub of agricultural machine parts in Asia and the Pacific in the foreseeable future. Siam Kubota Corporation Co., Ltd. invited journalists to visit its newly-built 32-rai centre (2.5 rai = 1 acre) for distributing its farm machine parts, worth 500 million baht, the second largest of its kind after the one at its headquarters in Japan in the Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Bangkok on Monday, paving the way to turn Thailand to become the regional distribution hub for agricultural machine parts in the foreseeable future. The company cited Thailand's potential to meet its plan to serve the growing agricultural machine parts market in the Asian-Pacific region, covering member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), India, Australia and African nations. Siam Kubota President Hiroshi Kawakami told the journalists that total value of the farm machine parts market in Thailand stands around 70 billion baht, with his company securing about a 70 per cent market share. Siam Kubota Vice President Opas Thanwarashorn assessed that Thailand's agricultural machine parts market should grow steadily from 2015, after a two-year slowdown, thanks to expanding demand by local farmers and the recovering domestic economy in the wake of the formation of the new Thai Cabinet by next month. (TNA)